The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a superconductor consisting of different materials. German Patent Application No. 1,234,939 discloses a manufacture of superconductors by mixing vanadium powder and V.sub.2 Ga.sub.5 powder in accordance with the reaction: 13V + V.sub.2 Ga.sub.5 .fwdarw. 5V.sub.3 Ga. A disadvantage of this method of manufacturing a superconductor resides in that the final product becomes porous. Moreover, this method is not suitable for manufacturing filamentary superconductors.
According to the present invention these disadvantages can be obviated by introducing into a piece of material of an element or an alloy of this element selected from the group of V-B at least one element selected from the group IIIA or IVA or a compound of the element of the group VB with at least one element of said other groups or a mixture of such a compound with an element of the groups IIIA or IVA of the Periodic System, by reducing, if desired, the diameter of the assembly and by subsequently forming a superconductive layer of these elements by a thermal treatment, the second of said compounds having such a deficiency of the element of the group V-B that for the formation of the superconductive layer material from the first-mentioned piece is used.
There may be added an accelerator to the introduced material. The introduced material may be compact, powdery or a mixture of powders or of a powder and a compact material. The method according to the invention is particularly effective when the first piece of material is vanadium and the introduced material is V.sub.2 Ga.